Here’s someone with a realistic take on the Moleskine brand: “This is a company that took a famous novelist/travel writer’s (Bruce Chatwin) description of his favorite non-living travel companion (the brandless, black-covered, elastic-banded, ribbon-bookmarked notebook) and from it built a brand that is extraordinary in its implied history and prestige. …the company only came into … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: “Legit Quality and Design, Faux History”→
NubbyTwiglet has an interesting idea for a visual journal/scrapbook: a Typography Notebook. I read a lot of magazines and find amazing type everywhere I look. Instead of keeping these images loose (and just waiting to get lost), I began gluing them into an inexpensive Muji notebook that I deemed my ‘Typography Notebook’ about two years … Continue reading Typography Notebook→
A couple of years ago, there was a great post on Design Observer about Michael Bierut’s notebooks: The post made its way around the blogosphere so extensively that I never bothered to link to it here. But more recently, a reader asked me if I had seen it, and it got me thinking again about … Continue reading Michael Bierut on 86 Notebooks→
I recently got an email from an Austrian designer named Konstantin Schmölzer, who asked me to take a look at his concept for a notebook. His idea is very cool: a notebook with multiple bookmarks that can link from an index page to anywhere in the notebook. Here’s an image of one of his prototypes: … Continue reading Konstantin Schmölzer’s Unique Notebooks→
This week’s addict is a designer who wishes he could find one notebook that met all his needs: One important characteristic I require is that the pages have to withstand watercolour paints, as this is the most common medium used when adding detail and colour to my sketches. The Windsor and Newton sketchpad does this … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Rusty Rocket→
Here’s an interesting concept– using a separate notebook for every project you work on. Depending on how you work and what kind of notebooks you like, it could be unwieldy or impractical, but in this case, we seem to be talking about graphic design projects in small Moleskine cahiers or Volants, and the user says … Continue reading One Notebook Per Project→
I’m sure many of us notebook freaks have often imagined creating the perfect notebook– something that would take elements of notebooks you like and combine them, or somehow correct flaws, or else customize a notebook that is perfect for your exact needs. Here’s an interesting series of posts from a designer who did just that, … Continue reading Design Sojourn Reinvents the Sketchbook→
These are just gorgeous! This set of eight books is a treasure. The books are the journals of a kasuri weaver/dyer from Omi, an area of Japan (present-day Shiga Prefecture) which produced some of Japan’s finest hemp and ramie kasuri textiles, known as Omi jofu. The books date from 1859 through the beginning of last … Continue reading 19th Century Notebooks From a Japanese Dyeworks→
Graphic Arts Magazine has some news on Moleskine’s new packaging for 2011 planners, including quality control codes and QR codes that will link to the Moleskine website when you photograph them with certain phones. Not sure what the source is for this info, but you can read more at Legendary Moleskine notebooks announces new improvements … Continue reading More Info on Moleskine’s New Packaging and Quality Control→
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…
